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Last week I posted ‘The ibb & obb End of Year Tribute Quiz’ to ibb & obb’s followers and in a few other places. The quiz showed 13 images, each tributing a game or studio that influenced ibb & obb’s design.

Thirty people submitted answers. Three managed to get a perfect score. Which I feel is pretty impressive as there are a few tributes I thought no one would get.

The questions and correct answers are below:

Tribute 1VVVVVV by Terry Cavanagh
A platformer that revolves around a gravity flipping mechanic. VVVVVV combines hard puzzles with a friendly atmosphere and a lot of character. It’s the kind of game I hope ibb & obb resembles.

Tribute 2Katamari Damacy by Namco
A core mechanic that is clear, accessible and imaginative, wrapped in craziness and Japanese poppy tunes. I can’t imagine anyone playing this and not smiling the whole time.

Tribute 3Braid by Number None
In a presentation, Braid’s designer Jonathan Blow talked about how he felt that players should be offered the opportunity to fully explore the mechanics in a game. The result of that thought can be found in the secret levels of ibb & obb.

Tribute 4Capybara Games
A small studio can raise the artistic bar for all of us.

Tribute 5Altered Beast by Sega
Altered Beast came bundled with the first console I had access to, the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis). I played this co-op with my brother many times. Even though the game itself doesn’t really appeal to me, I have very fond memories of those co-op sessions. I didn’t think many would get this one correct, but still almost half of the participants did.

Tribute 6Proteus by Ed Key and David Kanaga
I love Proteus’ color pallets. Unique and vibrant but never childish. Similar to what I wanted to achieve with ibb & obb.
This one turned out to be one of the hardest to guess. And was mixed up with Loco Roco a lot.

Tribute 7Ico by Team Ico
The true stars in Ico are the enemies. No huge raging demon like aliens here, but blurry black creatures that constantly back away from you and try to get a sneaky hit in. When one manages to knock you over, the other will grab your girl will try to take her to their own world behind the black pool of death. True scariness is not in the looks, but in the behaviour.

Tribute 8Little Big Planet by Media Molecule
One of the very few ‘bigger’ games that was marketed purely as a cooperative experience.

Tribute 9Limbo by Playdead
Limbo offers such a polished experience. There are a lot of subtle design choices to be found in this game. From the way the game starts to the seamless level transitions. The game seems to never disrupt you, it just flows.

Tribute 10Super Mario Bros. by Nintendo
I replayed Super Mario Bros. during the start of ibb & obb’s development. It’s amazing how up to date it still feels. Also Mario teaches us a lot about good secret design. The secrets feel as an integral part of the game world.

Tribute 11Vlambeer
I respect Vlambeer a lot for their openness in development and efforts for the indie community. Also ibb & obb is clearly based on GUN GODZ.

Tribute 12Portal by Valve
Many reviewers called the puzzles in ibb & obb ‘Portal like’ and ik kind of agree. I feel the puzzles in ibb & obb ask for a similar way of thinking as those in Portal.

Tribute 13Thatgamecompany
When I started my graduation project that led to concept of ibb & obb, Jenova Chen’s graduation prototype Flow, caught Sony’s attention and managed to make it to the PlayStation3. That was my dream and example back then and it feels crazy that it actually happened.
Thatgamecompany’s Journey became one of my all time favorites. It is so well designed with such a great understanding of the player experience. I’m sure it will influence me and many other designers.
This last tribute turned out to be the most difficult to guess. About one in three got it right. And a few clever votes for Fingle here.

So sweet.
I finally met ibb and obb. Not the book ones, not the game ones, the real ones! Kevin and Leonoor named their kittens after the game characters. And since Kevin was the one who suggested to name my characters after Jasper Fforde’s book characters, it all makes sense now.